


I Met You Long Ago When Everything Was Bright and New.

by tiredperalta



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, First Meeting, No Spoilers, Pre-show, They're getting married next week??, can u believe??, i love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 17:54:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14699322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiredperalta/pseuds/tiredperalta
Summary: It is the fourth of March 2009 and to Amy Santiago it feels like the beginning of something new.(My take on Jake and Amy's first meeting.)





	I Met You Long Ago When Everything Was Bright and New.

Amy Santiago’s hand is wavering. It remains four centimetres away from the elevator’s up button and she is shaking slightly. She takes a deep breath, shifts the weight of her bag onto her other shoulder and presses the button, steps inside.

_(She's not scared, she's never scared, she's just... cautious.)_

She picks at the hem of her grey suit and realises she’s been subconsciously digging her nails into her palms. She shifts slightly, feels the resistance of items hidden in her pockets. Her trouser pockets hold some secrets as well as a few pens, a ten dollar note, her phone and a pack of almost empty cigarettes.

She’s beginning to regret staying up so late as she knows exhaustion is making its home on her face, bags resting under her eyes that she hasn't seen so dark in months accompanied by replies that don't quite arrive in time.

She probably should have slept but the nerves have made their home in her stomach and aren't threatening to leave anytime soon.

_"Hey! Hold that door!”_

She's suddenly glad for the flickering light of the elevator as the stranger cannot see her visibly jump at the surprise of another voice, hidden behind an almost closed door and the shadows around her. Unable to find the proper words, she silently pushes the door open and waits.

He looks amused like he's trying to figure her out.

 _"Cheers,”_ he grins.

She watches him move as he presses the third-floor button. He’s all grins and curly hair reaching down towards his eyes, a blue baggy hoodie hanging haphazardly off his shoulders. He is constantly moving – twisting his NYPD badge around his neck, shaking his leg, running a hand through his hair – and it’s beginning to stress her out.

 _“So, where you headed?”_ he grins.

_(He won't stop grinning and it annoys her in a way she doesn't quite understand.)_

_“Uh, yeah, the third floor.”_

_“Samesies.”_

She automatically rolls her eyes.

Smiley-boy grins more.

All she knows is that the brown of his eyes remind her of the coffee she drank that morning, she’s kinda mesmerised.

The third floor arrives. They both exit. He holds out a hand for her to shake.

 _"I'm Jake Peralta,"_ he grins.

 _"Jake,”_ she repeats, testing the words out on her tongue, almost to see how it tastes, “I _’m detective Amy Santiago.”_

_"Noice.”_

She nods slightly to him, shakes his hand, feels the presence of another man next to her – Charles.

_(He says “I hear wedding bells!” and the moment passes, they break apart.)_

She’s directed to her desk opposite Jake’s – which will be either her downfall or the making of her – and organises. Pulls papers into piles, places a plant neatly on the side, lines pens into colour order.

Jake leans forward. _“You don’t talk much, do you?”_

_"Sorry for not wanting to spill all my secrets to a guy I literally just met."_

Jake tilts his head a little. His eyes slide over her desk and back to his. If he’d ever seen a more obvious example of polar opposites, he hadn’t seen it. Where her desk is neat, organised, tidy, his is, for lack of a better word, a goddamn mess.

_"So, what’s the story here?"_

_"There’s no story."_

_"Oh, come on, there’s always a story."_

Amy ignores him. _"What’s your story then?"_

Jake shrugs lightly, brings his legs under the table and rests them lazily on his desk. He leans back in his creaking chair.

_“I was visiting my estranged wife and kids at a holiday party but it was interrupted by terrorists so I had to single-handedly take them all down. Then I moved here.”_

_“That is definitely the plot to Die Hard.”_

His eyes widen as he grins.

_"Okay, you got me. The actual story is much more boring: absent father, a few broken hearts, watched too many violent cop films as a kid. Now I’m here.”_

Jake goes silent for a little while after and she’s oddly disappointed. Instinctively, she feels the urge to ask to move desks but she's morbidly curious and there's something about his curly hair and cop film references that pique her interest. There are things she wants to ask but instead, she just contributes to the silence.

 _"My story is less cool,"_ she states after a while, " _my dad was a cop, my grandad was a cop and I’ve got seven brothers – four of those are cops. It’s just what I’ve always wanted."_

 _“Man, that is cool though!"_ Jake laughs suddenly, _“the only girl in the family history to be a cop, that’s dope.”_

She smiles.

_“I’m going to be the youngest captain of the NYPD one day.”_

_“I don’t doubt it, Santiago.”_

 

_(It is the fourth of March 2009 and to Amy Santiago, it feels like the beginning of something new.)_

**Author's Note:**

> T h e y r e g e t t i n g m a r r i e d n e x t w e e k canyoubelieveimgonnacry


End file.
